Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday will launch a website to start taking customer orders for its battery-electric Focus compact car, due to hit showrooms in 19 markets during the next year.

Ford’s coming a bit late to the electric car party. Then again, sales in the nascent segment have been slow to build. Nissan Motor Corp. has sold just over 8,000 of its all-electric Nissan Leaf through the end of October. General Motors Co. has moved only 5,003 of its plug-in Chevrolet Volt models. Tesla Motors says it’s got orders for all 6,500 of the $50,000 Model S sedans it plans to build next year.

Ford says its all-electric Focus will start at $39,995. Buyers may qualify for a federal tax credit of $7,500 and certain states, such as California, have additional subsidies. Would-be buyers of the Focus Electric will have only a few choices to make when ordering: leather seats are optional, and there are two paint colors.

Ford hopes to make a selling point of the claim that its batteries can recharge in just over three hours using a 240-volt charging station, about half the time it takes to recharge a Leaf.

Comments (5 of 6)

I was disappointed with the price. I thought the electric Focus was originally supposed to be a cheaper EV, since Ford was going to reuse the Focus platform rather than rebuild from scratch. I have bought Focuses for years, and wanted to move to the electric. But $40,000? It would take me 20 years to save enough in gas to make that $15,000 electric premium go away. So I won't be buying it, and never will until they can bring the price down. I as thinking $30,000, not $40,000.

6:58 pm November 6, 2011

Elise wrote :

How do you know the inverter is in the trunk?

1:11 pm November 3, 2011

Sasparilla wrote :

Have to chuckle at the comment on trying to catch up to the leadership from Ford (Ford does lead in many things, but plug in vehicle tech is not one of those things).

This vehicle was thought up and designed and pitched to Ford management by a very smart Canadian auto supplier (Magna) - they created a default EV design that would fit in most small cars (that's why the trunk in the Focus Electric is full of the inverter instead of elsewhere as in the Leaf and Volt) and planned on pitching it to any manufacturer that might want it.

They pitched it to Ford execs first who didn't have an internal EV program and were smart enough to go for this proposal. The downside is that they won't be able to make very many (compared to the Leaf or Volt both of which will see production go up significantly in 2012 for the Volt and 2013 for the Leaf) and apparently the Ford execs decided to go for a high price (the Leaf starts at $35k) since they won't have many to sell.

Looks like GM employees have made their two comments and now get back to thier desks and get to work trying to catch up with Ford's leadership.

1:59 pm November 2, 2011

Bablinkato wrote :

Hmmm. The same price as a Volt, but the Volt can drive cross country while the Ford can drive 60 miles before the battery dies and the car is stranded. The GM Volt has a backup (gas) power source, the Ford has a tow truck. That said, if all you need is something that can drive 30 miles and back, the Ford might be able to do it.